Quick report
Higher elevations in this area have significant slabs forming from the recent winds, building on soft and colder snow that had survived the previous wind events. Climbing a North aspect, we first started to experience difficult travel in varied wind pack and breakable crusts, but eventually the surface started to sound hollow and drum-like as the layers got deeper, so we stopped to check it out. A quick inspection on a 32deg slope at 10,900ft revealed a 180cm HS with a 10cm 1F hard cohesive slab sitting on 10cm of cold F hard snow on top of an older, thinner crust layer. Below this, the snowpack seemed consistent and well bonded. CT failed in the upper slab while still cutting the back of the column, and that was enough to encourage our retreat, as the problem was clearly becoming deeper and more consequential as we climbed.